Thursday, July 03, 2014

ADIOS A LOS BEATLES

There is no more glorious sound for jaded ears than this rural Mexican brass band blowing berserk, off-key, highly enthusiastic instrumental versions of Beatles songs. Even the dreaded "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" sounds great as a crazy carnival theme. Sadly, nothing is known about the band responsible for this genuine piece of folk-art madness other than that they were from, as their name would indicate, Tepetlixpa.

The lack of info almost makes me wonder if this isn't a hoax. Consider the name Banda Plástica De Tepetlixpa Mex.: a reference to Plastic Ono Band? And the back cover tells a preposterous story of Lennon and McCartney visiting Tepetlixpa. But there is still plenty of information that has not been captured in the internet's nets, and these guys could very well have simply never been documented in their time. Tepetlixpa, after all, is a pretty obscure little village, warranting only a few sentences on their skimpy wiki page...if they really were from Tepetlixpa. I've heard no indications that this is a hoax, but even if it is, it's still as enjoyable as The Portsmouth Sinfonia, orFritz Guckenheimer and his Sour Kraut Band.

The Tepetlixpa "Hey Jude" is in Volume IV of the Exotic Beatles collection from Exotica Records (http://www.exoticarecords.co.uk/beatles.html). I am trying to get a peek at the liner notes without buying the CD, since one more CD packed into my house will produce critical mass and cause meltdown or explosion.

So, I found an article on the "15 Worst Covers of Beatles Songs" (http://www.openculture.com/2012/06/butchering_the_beatles_crowdsourcing_the_covers_so_bad_theyre_good.html) with "Hey Jude" from Tepetlixpa.

A comment after the article tells a tale of The Beatles visiting Tepetlixpa and inspiring the local band. Even the teller of the tale is not convinced it's true.

Why, even with OCD and DDG, can I not find a vinyl or CD version of the Tepetlixpa album on offer? I find ever so many mp3s, but no indication of any original published version.

This review (http://sangrepesada2.wordpress.com/2007/09/11/banda-plastica-de-tepetlixpa-mex/) claims that the album was really recorded by a community band in Tepetlixpa. It doesn't mention the Beatles' visit, but pictures at the top might show Beatles in the little town.

The article repeats the 2000 date (of a CD re-release?) but the comments claim a vinyl LP from 1981. I haven't found a single offer of a used copy yet.

Google does a very comprehensible translation of the Spanish into English. It might even be mostly correct.

I'm calling hoax on this one! If this really was recorded about 45 years ago in a tiny Mexican village, how come the quality of the recording is that good? If that photo is supposed to be authentic, apparently the local photographer's camera was so ancient that he was still taking sepia-tinted pictures in the late sixties! What are the chances that any of the locals even had a reel-to-reel tape recorder? And is it likely that they could afford to have the record made at their own expense in a proper studio?

Also, the album title and that picture with the banner put me very much in mind of the incident described in "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test", when Ken Kesey, in an (unsuccessful) attempt to get the Fab Four to visit him, erected a banner over his driveway reading "The Merry Pranksters Welocome The Beatles". I think what we're dealing with here is another bunch of merry pranksters.

Mucho Gracias. I really don't care for Mexican pop music, but there once was a site called Mexicovers that had Latin musicians covering American and British pop songs. I downloaded everything they had and enjoy it tremendously. They didn't have this one, so thanks.

Yes, "Yellow Submarine" is naturally rather brass band-y, isn't it?Count Otto, I noticed that too: it's certainly not a "field recording." But then again, anything Beatles was considered potentially lucrative, no matter how ludicrous (e.g.: "Baroque Beatles," "Beatle Barkers," etc). And it's not like these guys spent much time in the studio - pretty sure it's all one take, no overdubs! One never knows, does one..?Gracias Timmy! Now whos got the cerveza?